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Thursday, April 20, 2017

Bill is in the news again, more allegations of sexual harassment-no not Cosby- O'Reilly.

FOX has already spent $13,000,000 settling previous allegations against the "news" man but the latest allegations are a bridge too far - even for FOX- that bastion of truth.

It seems that Murdoch who owns FOX who owns O'Reilly is under scrutiny in Europe over a $13 Billion merger and that and the racial aspect of the latest allegations have forced Murdoch to push O'Reilly under the train of public opinion as advertisers started to pull their ads following the revelations.

This latest allegations follows settlements with five other women totaling about $13 million. That's a lot of money and a hell of a lot of repeated sexual harassment. Harassment that seemed to be tolerated by the culture at FOX- that is up until today.

So O'Reilly the man who exaggerated his intelligence, honesty and his role in reporting from the "warzone" on mainland Argentina during the Falklands war - some hundreds of miles away from the nearest combat.

Saturday, April 8, 2017

It's important to remember that not only is Putin a paper tiger militarily he is also a paper tiger economically. Russia's economy is only half that of the state of California.
When Turkey shot down a Russian plane Putin talked big (remember that?) But did nothing. NOTHING.

He huffs and puffs over Syria but he won't do anything more than huff and puff.

Worse again for him is the fact that Russia's economy is actually in serious decline and is built on Energy a stable that other countries are learning to get from renewable sources.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Like fascism, silly mustaches, goose steeps and open racism, 1930s style Jingoism is back in style!

And there's no bigger proponent of jingoism than the Tory Party under Theresa May. She almost jingos as she walks!

Today we have Lord Howard, former leader of the Tory Party compare Gibraltar to the Falklands and he was followed up by Rear-Adml Chris Parry, late of the Royal Navy who claims that the UK "could cripple Spain in the medium term and I think the Americans would probably support us too"

Lord Howard compared the squabble over the future of the Spanish tip to Margaret Thatcher’s Falklands war – as the Prime Minister offered reassurance to the people on The Rock that the UK was committed to them.

Now the fact that the "squabble" is caused by Brexit and that 96% of Gibraltar voted to REMAIN in the EU is ignored completely.

The fact that Spain is a NATO Ally and is no way hostile about the issue and is searching only for a political settlement to the issue is, again, ignored completely.

In fact it is a non-story or "fake news" designed to distract from the fact that the UK has no bargaining power left over Gibraltar, is facing a 50 Billion bill and will most likely have to stay under jurisdiction of EU courts and permit immigration just to keep the lights on in dealing with the EU.

The truth is that like Northern Ireland the UK really doesn't care about Gibraltar, well certainly not enough to change it's Brexit or enter into an accommodation with EU over them.

We must also face the fact that Rear Admiral Chris Parry is at best, an idiot. He believes the US will back the UK in any such action.

Rear Admiral Chris Parry must have forgotten the time the US navy diverted US sub in mid Atlantic to avoid upsetting the Spanish? The US was going to attend Trafalgar Day celebrations at Gibrarltar with the Royal Navy and when Spain objected the US turned the sub around. Is that the same country that Rear Admiral Chris Parry thinks is going to back up a UK war with Spain?

Rear Admiral Chris Parry must have forgotten that the CIA planned to relocate the Falklanders to Scotland as part of it's resolution of the conflict and there was even talk of giving the UK's battle plans to the Argentinians.

Rear Admiral Chris Parry must be at best, an idiot.

For all the talk of the special relationship the US has not backed up an independent UK action since Suez. The US has actually invaded UK territory without consulting or informing the UK as it did in Grenada in 1983.

So maybe it's all for the best that Lord Howard is gathering dust in the House of Lords and that the Royal Navy is free of Rear Admiral Parry.

Monday, March 27, 2017

It's always sad to see people let themselves down and I was saddened to see Ted Koppel pushing his new book "Lights Out" based on the premise of a terrorist attack on US infrastructure.

" The more I looked into it, the more I came to the conclusion that the federal and state governments have done little or nothing to prepare for anything other than the natural disasters we experience every year and that a cyberattack would potentially be far, far worse." - Ted Koppel

Now apart from being the plot to that terrible terrible terrible stinker that was Die Hard V it is also the cry of the fear-monger and particularly the older fear-monger.

Basically Koppel's cry can be translated as

"Oh my! things are not what they were when I was a lad, we had a policeman on every street and we were safe in our beds but now, the kids, with their computers and internet, they are putting us all at risk Things are strange and different and you all should be afraid!"

Computer linked infrastructure is even older than the internet as we know it and computers have been running and managing it since before I was born. And yet can Ted point out one single serious cyber-attack in that time?

He can not. Can you? I doubt it.

But in his book he wants you to fear such an event, to invest money in preventing such an event.

But the truth is money and effort and time is and always has been spent in keeping infrastructure safe always has and always will.

Ted needs to avoid the doom-mongering and stop watching "War Games" on VHS. He will sleep better and so will we.